Class of 2020: United by resilience

Here카지노 게임 컬렉션�s how Sept. 29, 2020 was supposed to unfold for Rebecca Maciver, PhD카지노 게임 컬렉션�20 (Pharmacology and Toxicology):

On the day that culminated 12 years of study at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s, she would get up, feed her cat Coco, drive the few blocks to Crave Coffee House, pick up eight coffees and her favourite cinnamon buns, and make her way to a room on campus where the members of her thesis defence committee would be waiting.

Then, after a couple of hours of rigorous inquisition, collegial cut and thrust, and delicious pastry, the newly minted doctor would repair to the student office near the pharma-tox labs where fellow students would be waiting with cake and hugs. The celebration would segue into a leisurely restaurant lunch and continue through the day and into the evening. Oh, and at some point, she would call her parents in Oshawa.

Of all Maciver카지노 게임 컬렉션�s expectations for that Friday, here is what came to pass: she fed her cat, got her doctorate, and called her parents. The defence of her thesis was an impersonal online affair in which she spoke to committee members one by one. No cut, little thrust. Also, no cake. No hugs. No lunch. Not even a congratulatory handshake. Too risky.

Rebecca Mciver, PhD'20. Photo: Jana Chytilova

카지노 게임 컬렉션�I mean it was very exciting, because I finished my PhD, and a number of years of very hard work카지노 게임 컬렉션� t was just a very different experience than I imagined.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

That could be the motto for the class of 2020: 카지노 게임 컬렉션�It wasn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t what we imagined.카지노 게임 컬렉션� The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a graduate experience unique in the annals of Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s alumni. It was the year when it seemed everything stopped but nothing really ended. For these graduates, the final few weeks of their careers at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s were robbed of everything that made them special: faculty formals, program award galas, farewell pub nights with friends you might never see again 카지노 게임 컬렉션� all the milestones that mark the end of a long journey. Writing for Psychology Today in May, anthropologist and psychotherapist Rebecca Lester warned about the erosion of ritual during the pandemic. Rituals and, more specifically, rites of passage, define the 카지노 게임 컬렉션�beginnings and ends to developmental or social phases카지노 게임 컬렉션� They do not only mark time; they create time,카지노 게임 컬렉션� she wrote.

Without rites of passage, we can be stuck in a kind of limbo, according to Lester. The road to limbo for the class of 2020 began when Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s announced the end of classes on March 13. Faced with an unprecedented situation, the university followed government and public health guidelines and, like other post-secondary institutions across the country, put the safety of students, faculty, and employees first. But for those who were rapidly approaching graduation, this raised questions. What next? Where next?

Many out-of-town students, such as 22-year-old Calgarian Ellen Barss, Com카지노 게임 컬렉션�20, scrambled to find a way home. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I was working on an assignment that was due that weekend, but at the same time I was on hold with Air Canada. The website had crashed, and I was on hold for like four hours. We were all trying to change our flights from the end of exams in April to March. It was chaos.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Political Studies student Chayce Perkins, Artsci카지노 게임 컬렉션�20, had little time to get her own affairs in order. As president of the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society, she had 13,000 other students to think of. On the day of the shutdown, she bounced from one student government emergency meeting to another, wrestling with a problem that was changing on the fly.

Nobody had any idea what to do. [All faculties] had major end-of-year events planned. Students were getting in touch, scared about what would happen 카지노 게임 컬렉션� There was lots of uncertainty, lots of panic. I remember everybody was so tired,카지노 게임 컬렉션� Perkins, 22, says.

Chayce Perkins, Artsci'20. Photo: Chris Tanouye

Over at the School of Nursing, director Erna Snelgrove-Clarke was wondering what to do with scores of nursing students doing practicums in hospitals and clinics in Kingston and surrounding areas. The students needed their clinical hours and the virus hadn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t yet had a significant impact in Kingston, but some students and some of their parents were getting concerned. The faculty kept up clinical practice for another week, becoming the last nursing school in the country to pull their students out of hospitals, says Snelgrove-Clarke.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�We had a phenomenal group of students who wanted to do everything they could possibly do to keep this going,카지노 게임 컬렉션� she says.

The unease that followed the shutdown was campus-wide, but the sense of loss was particularly sharp among the class of 2020. Almost immediately, faculties announced the cancellation of grad formals, events that were in some ways more anticipated than convocation.

A month earlier, Ellen Barss had lined up with her friends to buy tickets for Comm Prom, a banquet and gala whose trappings would take up most of a day, from a picture-taking reception to an after-formal party.

"We had heard a lot about it, and we had seen our peers go through it every year since first year, and so it was kind of a big milestone to hit,카지노 게임 컬렉션� says Barrs.

And now it was gone, along with an annual faculty send-off called the Dean카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Scene.

Awards galas also fell by the wayside. Global Development student Gillian Baker, Artsci카지노 게임 컬렉션�20, realized her parents wouldn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t be coming from Carleton Place to see her receive the Volunteer of Distinction Award from the Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Student Alumni Association. Within three days of the shutdown, it was clear that spring convocations would not take place. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I had the best four years at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s and just thought it would finish with a big hurrah,카지노 게임 컬렉션� says Baker. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�And you didn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t get that. You just trickled home; there was no cut off or ending... and we were left to scramble and ask, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�Okay, what now?카지노 게임 컬렉션�카지노 게임 컬렉션�

As students resigned themselves to their loss, the virus found other ways to make them miserable. Isolation took its toll. After weeks of working on her PhD thesis in the gloom of her basement apartment, Rebecca Maciver found her motivation waning. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I wasn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t really seeing the end of the work카지노 게임 컬렉션� It had been a couple of months of self-isolation and I think it just really started to take its toll.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

She came up with what she called her 카지노 게임 컬렉션�COVID holiday카지노 게임 컬렉션�: sitting in the passenger seat of her Ford Fiesta parked close enough to her apartment that she could still get a Wi-Fi signal. She brought water and snacks and played the radio while she wrote. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�The only thing was that every couple of hours I had to come in and chargemy laptop.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Sheikh Hamza Rizwan, MEng'20 (Civil Engineering), was a world away from his family when the pandemic took hold. When Dubai closed its border, he had no choice but to stay at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s. Rizwan, 23, coped pretty well until his uncle, his mother카지노 게임 컬렉션�s brother, contracted COVID-19 and spent a tense week in an ICU in Lucknow, India.

카지노 게임 컬렉션�If I had been with my mom, I think I would have felt a little bit better, I would have peace of mind that I카지노 게임 컬렉션�m next to my mom trying to console her," Rizwan says.

Rizwan, like many in the class of 2020, has been unable to move on from the COVID limbo. Economic collapse means that jobs are few and far between, and competition particularly fierce.

Harneet Kang, MIR카지노 게임 컬렉션�20 (Industrial Relations), has been applying for jobs in human resources since the summer without getting even a nibble. She카지노 게임 컬렉션�s starting to believe rumours from friends in the HR field that some companies are posting jobs as a COVID-era PR exercise without really intending to hire.

"It카지노 게임 컬렉션�s hard. There have been weeks when I카지노 게임 컬렉션�ve felt so down about how stagnant life has felt for the last however many months,카지노 게임 컬렉션� she says. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�This is going to sound really sad, but it카지노 게임 컬렉션�s difficult to find purpose right now for me.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Harneet Kang, MIR'20. Photo: Chris Tanouye

Maybe, she says, the experience will toughen up the class of 2020. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�It카지노 게임 컬렉션�s not the ideal time to be graduating and on a job hunt and starting off our careers and our adult lives카지노 게임 컬렉션� but also it will hopefully teach us different skills, ways to overcome challenges in our life.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Chauntae De Gannes, Artsci카지노 게임 컬렉션�20 (Sociology and Global Development), would endorse that sentiment. She recalls a wholesale sense of displacement on campus after the shutdown, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�a loss of self.카지노 게임 컬렉션� But, she says, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�it카지노 게임 컬렉션�s important to step back and put things in perspective카지노 게임 컬렉션� Our lives are in the future, not in the past."

Sheikh Hamza Rizwan notes that the changes wrought by COVID on the class of 2020 were not all bad.

"One of the things I noticed is how it brought a sense of unity among everybody. The students and staff카지노 게임 컬렉션�they all became more empathetic, more understanding to other people.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Rizwan credits, in part, the awareness of the virus that Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s engendered through its social media platforms. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�I think it should be applauded for that.카지노 게임 컬렉션�

Gillian Baker says she wouldn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t be happily employed as an education coordinator with the Oxford Learning Centre if it weren카지노 게임 컬렉션�t for COVID. Baker has been aiming towards a career in education since realizing how much she liked teaching while volunteering as a peer educator with Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s Health Outreach (QHO).Before the COVID disruptions, Baker was to have spent the summer in Guyana, helping with a QHO health awareness project. She was disappointed when the project was cancelled, but thrilled when it left her available to take the Learning Centre job. She sees it as the perfect way to spend a year before returning to Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션�s to take the teacher education program.

Karen Bertrand, Vice-Principal (Advancement), sees an unassailable resolve arising from the unique challenges faced by the class of 2020. 카지노 게임 컬렉션�This is a class like no other, and they have been united in a collective struggle that is unlike anything we카지노 게임 컬렉션�ve seen for generations. In so many ways they have faced an unfair share of disappointments, but their determination and resilience have really given all of us great hope for the future,카지노 게임 컬렉션� she says."

"They have already proven that they have what it takes to be successful, no matter what."